Friday,Friday

[At Cahokia Mounds State Park: Indian Burial Grounds]


This is a pretty cool museum and grounds to tour, if you're ever in this neck of the woods. ((Alkyseltzer)) Have you been there? They have some reconstructed village stuff and huge mounds to climb. I always wonder what the spirits are thinking, with all those clop-clop feet stomping around all the time. lol

I am whipped tonight. I have been cleaning--shampooed carpets and mopped wood floors and vacuumed and dusted and scoured showers and cleaned toilets. AND I shopped and put stuff into serving size pkgs for us and froze them. AND made a confetti cole slaw, a Meditteranean pasta salad, a Pina Colada cake (no run--only pineapple, cocnut, mandarin oranges...yum) , and 2 dozen devilled eggs and got the 5 pounds of ground beef pattied and the brats ready to grill. All for my baby brother and his family coming. My son and daughter-in-law are coming too. I have been up since 5 AM and it's now almost 12:30....

SO:

I am grateful to be blessed with family.
I am grateful that I have a big old bed in there calleng my name.
I am blessed to have fouond some great sales on some freezer stockin' stuff.
It was a beautiful day today, and I am grateful that I got to have all the windlows open to help dry the carpets.

I am grateful that tomorrow will be around 80...sunny and beautiful.

I am grateful to know that I am going to sleep like a baby.


G'nite!!

Thursday's thriller

[Le Poulet Chalet...home of the world's meanest rooster]

I had a tussle with the world's meanest rooster again today. I swear, some days it's like WMR has a bad case of PMS. I keep threatening to make a nice dumpling dinner outta him... He scratched me up as he came flying out of the henhouse at me when I opened the door to let them out. He hit me right in the middle of my back again, and I swung around with the half full gallon of water in my hand and cold cocked him. Knocked him silly...long enough for me to make my escape. Of course all the dogs were there, going crazy outside the pen. It was a 3 ring circus. lol World's Meanest Old Woman 1: World's Meanest rooster 2.

I had a good day otherwise. Slow and sweet, and was taken out for dinner by a long lost sponsee who has returned (maybe) and then on to a meeting. It was small, but it was good. It was a 10th Step meeting, and we read from the BB and from the 12&12. There were several newish women there, so it was good to talk about inventories and all that good stuff.

I am grateful for newbies who have their first "really good day!!"

I am blessed by the upcoming visit of my baby brother and his little family. My sister and husband are coming too and maybe a cousin and his family. We'll do something simple like bbq burgers and brats, and just have a great visit. Family is good.

I am blessed that I could surprise a young woman with a couple of carnations and baby's breath in a vase and some cupcakes for her birthday tonight. It's her bellybutton birthday, and it was actually yesterday.

I am blessed and awed by the sighting of a huge comet on my way home tonight. It was so low, and it was fiery yellow-orange. The head and the tail were so distinct it had to be close. I was driving home through the farm countryside, a lonely dark windy road, when I saw it. I was so excited. I have seen lots of shooting stars, but never a comet like that...I'm trying to find some informnation about it, but so far, nothing. I KNOW I wasn't hallucinating...

I am off to bed early tonight, so I can get up and take hubby to work. I'll have to shop for some groceries, and get some stamps, and clean my carpets tomorrow. Full day---good thing I'm sober!!

Wednesday wobblies

[1st day of spring in my front yard, 2007]

(Not the picture I was trying to post--it flat would not load. hmmmm)

I'm having a time uploading a picture for some reason tonight. I guess that I will write a bit and then try again later.

A peaceful nice day at home again today. The weather was beautiful, I accomplished just enough to feel productive, but not enough to break a sweat. *grin Played with the critters in the yard, cooked a lovely Soy ginger chicken and wheat noodle dinner, read a bit, and altogether took it easy.

Tonight I am tired and thinking I will be in bed within the half hour. I meant to be in bed before now, but you know how that goes.

Just got an IM from my pal, asking if I was going to the funeral tomorrow. I am not. I have been to entirely too many funerals this year. I didn't know the deceased and am not really that good of friends with the daughter. SO I'm taking a pass...I am going to dinner before the women's meeting with an absentee sponsee who called yesterday. I have been concerned about her...she relapsed after over 2 decades sober and has about 9 months now, I think, but won't stay in touch and doesn't go to hardly any meetings...this is one reason I don't like to take on sponsees after relapsing after being sober a long time. They know all the things to do, but don't do them. I talk and she nods and says, Yeah, I know, I know...and then it's just more of the same. I don't know how she stays sober...she said she doesn't pray, etc etc... but--she called and wants to get together. I think she just had a scare....

I'm grateful tonight that I haven't found it necessary to take a drink in 18+ years.

I'm grateful that it's a cloudless super starry night out there.

I'm grateful that my pets are all healthy and happy.

I'm grateful for my family.

I'm grateful I get to host Thanksgiving this year--for all 40 of us.

I'm grateful to be reminded by the Dalai Lama that ..."Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive."

So...let me be more loving and compassionate, God. Give me the opportunities, and not just the capabilities.

I'm grateful that I have a God of my understanding today, and that she reads my blog. lol

I'm grateful that God has a sense of humor. (Look at armadillos!)

I'm grateful to be on this journey...and striving to be the Annie that God dreamed me to be.

Night, all...

*****************Edited to add--there were 3 comments on this post, and I [thought] checked them all, but only 2 appeared. And now the 3rd is gone into the ethernet. Help??????????

Two-fer Tuesday

[Molly the Jack Russell terrorist, doing a little light reading]

It has rained all day here. Never hard or stormy, just a nice rain. NO power outages, no windstorms...just water. Very nice.

I had a lovely lunch with M and the food was great...I had a beef and pork filled homemade tortellini with peas and prosciutto and fresh quartered mushrooms in a light creamy garlic sauce. Magnifique! I even had enough leftover to bring home, and I shall devour it at lunch (or maybe breakfast) tomorrow.

M has almost talked me into coloring my hair again. I stopped about 4 years ago, because I am just too lazy to keep doing it all the time, frankly. It requires a commitment--ugh! lol But now "...my hair is grey...and I ache in the places where I used to play..." (From a Leonard Cohen song--any fans out there?? I ADORE LC)... Anyway, now my hair is almost all grey and I'm starting to look like my mother. That does not work for me...so it might be time to rethink the color issue.

This year I am the same age my mother was when she died of cirhossis of the liver. That's a sobering thought, in more ways than one. She never got out from under the whip of alcoholism...the only reason she died sober was that she had been hospitalized with a cerebral hemmorhage 2 weeks earlier.

I am grateful that my son (God willing) may never have to have his mother die in his arms from alcoholism at the tender age of 55....

Why I am the one in my family of alcoholics that got to get sober is beyond me. Half my siblings drink, half don't. The family dynamic is interesting to say the least. Whatever the reason...I'm grateful.

Blessed to be able to get through the day without a drink.

(Wasn't always the case)

Blessed to be able to look at my part in things.

(Ditto)

Blessed to be a blogger....have a great night all....I'm sleepy and it's time to go.

Monday's in the country

[Me, on a bad hair day]

Just off the phone with an old friend from California. A wonderful treat, and we only talked half an hour, but will hook up again later this week. Made my night!

I'm sitting here surrounded by the critters. They are my best friends at night, and rarely leave my sight when I'm on the computer. I'm getting up early to take hubby to work so I can keep the car and go out for lunch with a friend. Unless she has to cancel. One of her sponsees' mother died tonight. I just talked to the girl at the fish fry...she is getting married in 2 weeks. What a tragic event. The mother was only 67.... She is 5 years sober...(the daughter).

It has been a week of sad events...one of our local members succumbed to cancer on the day of his 19th birthday. My friend whose husband just died lost his mother Friday, her MIL. One of my sponsees called today hysterical. Her neighbor, who came over all the time and loved her kids, apparently murdered his father and attacked his mother at their rural home not too far from me. He is in jail, naturally. The paper said he called 911 and reported himself about an hour after he did it. They found him there at the house.

The circle of life. And on top of that, my friend that called from CA said that she has lost over 1/3 of her portfolio in the market crash. She said that a year ago she was getting nervous and wanted to pull her money out, but the guy said no, that would be a mistake and convinced her to leave it alone. She doesn't think she will ever recover any of it. She is a child therapist, and does a lot of pro bono work, as well as her job work. She had healthy inheritances from the loss of her mother and then her father. And now a lot of it is gone.

Sometimes it isn't nearly so suckey to be poor as it is to be well off, I guess. When you don't have anything to lose, maybe you win. That's sure something to think about.

My gratitude list tonight has got to start again with the fact that my house is mine, free and clear, except for taxes.

And we are still eating out of the garden.

And I have gas and a few dollars to go to lunch.

Then there's the beautiful weather lately.

The flowers that are still blooming.

And me and my family are relatively healthy.

And thanks to AA, I can be a friend when someone needs me.

And thanks to AA, I can be pretty sure I'll still be sober tomorrow.

And thanks to my Creator, I am at peace in my head and in my heart.

If I stay rooted in my AA program, I don't have to worry about spinning off the planet in the face of all the uncertainty and fear in the world today.

If I stay where my feet are, I'll be okay.

Nitey-nite!

Indian Summer Sunday

[The giant hostas along my back deck]


It was a beautiful day today, temps in the low 80's, blazing sun and clear blue skies. It might rain tomorrow, but for today, it was perfect.

We attended a fish fry today at the home of a friend. There were probably 40 people there, and I knew almost all of them. That's pretty amazing to me. It was really nice and fun being with that many sober people. The food was great, they provided the fish and drinks and everyone brought a dish. I made the slaw last night. It was all gone.

Then we gave a ride to a couple of people who wanted to attend the weenie roast/bonfire/speaker meeting across town . We stayed for a bit and I hooked up with 2 sponsees and got a chance to chat with both. Didn't stay for the speaker though...we are a couple of old farts who can only take SO much fun in one day, lol. We left this morning around 9 and hit a meeting, and we got home tonight around 7. That was a long day.

I'm feeling especially grateful for the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous tonight. I have lived here for a little over three years and it's like I have been here forever. I know a lot of people, thanks to meetings. I have a lunch date on Tuesday with a woman I really like, and it will be fun. She's someone I haven't known very long, maybe 6 months, but we have really connected I think, and I hope we become great friends. I could use a friend--someone who's not a sponsee, or a sponsor. Just a pal.

I'm grateful that life is what it is: a continuous learning curve, as one of my good friends always says. And knowing that if I don't grow, I go, keeps me active and vigilant and connected.

What a deal!

Saturday --straight up

[In a Japanese Garden in Decatur, IL]


That guy looks like I feel somedays. lol

Had a relatively quiet day today. Went to a meeting, went to lunch with 2 of my sponsees. Came home and played with the dogs. Hubby is out tonight with a friend who had won 2 tickets to a comedy club. They went to a Happy Hour meeting and then to dinner and then the show. I stayed home and grilled myself a beautiful NY Strip steak and baked potato for supper...all nice and rare the way I like it. Grabbed a couple of Roma tomatoes out of the garden and cut 'em up with some sea salt and fresh ground black pepper. Yum.

I vacuumed and sprayed some stuff on the carpets to get rid of any errant fleas that may still be hanging around. It looks pretty good--I think we have won the war. lol

I had probably 5 phone calls from AA'ers. That was nice. I played some computer games. I mostly play word games, with an occasional Zuma thrown in for good measure. *wink

I made a big bowl of cabbage confetti salad to take to a fish fry we've been invited to tomorrow. We'll go to the 10 AM meeting and then from there to the soiree. I realized I wouldn't have time to make it in the morning....it has red and green cabbage, red, yellow, and green peppers, chopped fine. I also ALWAYS chop my cabbage-never grate it. It's just one of those things. Then it has carrot and red onion (both grated) and celery seed. The dressing is a vinegar and oil, horseradish,sugar salt and pepper with just a touch of mayo thrown in. Then I blend it well and pour it over. I sometimes put garlic granules in it, but I just bought the garlic and it is SO strong, I decided not to risk it. When I was bringing it home, I had to put it in the trunk because it was making my eyes water. lol I get it at the health food store...where I get most of my spices.

I'm blessed with friends. I'm blessed with contentment.
I'm blessed with sobriety. I'm blessed with discernment.
I'm blessed with relative good health. I'm blessed with a love of all music.
I was blessed today with a 2 1/2 year old who called me gramma...I had taken her out of the meeting to give her mommy a break. We walked across the street to the DG and I bought her a Unicorn pony (the kind with the long stick that you ride), a pink feather and diamond tiara, and a smiling pink and red dinosaur. And some vanilla pudding. And we bought little Caylee a new stuffed toy--a little black lab that looks just like Lucy.

My life is good. I heard a woman say one time that "God's got a DEAL for drunks that don't drink."

I think she was right.



Nitey nite......